PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Kopera testified about his toolmark analysis of the bullets and shell casings. Prior to his testimony, Judge Angeletti told the jury: “I know Mr. Kopera quite well. But, Mr. Kopera, will you be kind enough to give the jury a capsule of your training, education, and background?” Kopera testified that he received a graduate degree from the University of Maryland in mechanical engineering and a science degree from the Rochester Institute of Photo Science. He explained to the jury about how the rifling of a gun barrel creates small, unique grooves on a bullet when it is fired. “In the process of manufacturing these rifling marks or land and groove impressions, the manufacturer, because of the types of tools he uses in the process in which he puts his rifling marks within the barrel, is also putting minute marks called stria within the barrel, which enable the ballistic examiner or firearm examiner to identify that barrel to a fired bullet,” Kopera said. Kopera testified that the test-fired casings and the casings found at the Chandelier Club contained the same rifling, which he said proved the bullets fired at the club were fired from the .357 Magnum recovered by Officer Conley."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "On early 2007, a public defender in Maryland discovered inconsistencies in Kopera’s testimony about his resume. The attorney dug further and found out that Kopera, by then working for the Maryland State Police, had lied about his credentials. He had only attended college for a year and forged a transcript from the University of Maryland. After being confronted with this evidence, Kopera retired and then shot himself to death on March 1, 2007.
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PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "Warthen filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence on October 6, 2009. A judge denied the petition on procedural grounds on February 15, 2011, and a series of judges at the trial and appellate level ruled against re-opening his claims. In 2019, investigators learned that Kopera had done more than just testify falsely about his credentials; he had also forged the initials of the co-worker who was supposed to have reviewed his work."
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PASSAGE FOUR OF THE DAY: "The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office did not certify that Warthen was innocent, but it dismissed the charges on April 3, 2023. Warthen, now 61 years old, was released from prison after more than 38 years in custody. Ronnie Hunt Jr. and Douglass Haynie were also exonerated in part based on Kopera’s misconduct. On April 1, 2024, Warthen filed a claim for state compensation. The state opposed the request. It conceded that Kopera’s trial testimony was unreliable but said that Warthen had not met the burden of proving his innocence. Administrative Law Judge Jennifer Carter Jones held a three-day hearing on October 1-3, 2024…….On February 12, 2025, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved the payments to Warthen and his attorney. Governor Wes Moore, who chairs the board, said: “Mr. Warthen, as the governor of this state, but most importantly as a father, as a husband, as a son, and as a fellow Marylander, there are no words that can be said or shared to tell you how sorry I am, but also how sorry this entire state is for the way that our justice system failed you repeatedly. And while no amount can undo the injustice to make up for what was taken from you and your wife and your family, I do hope that today's actions by this board provide a measurable level of closure and relief for the completely unfair treatment that you have gone through.”
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RECENT ENTRY: National Registry of exonerations: By Ken Otterbourg: August 20, 2025.
GIST: "At about 3:30 a.m. on April 23, 1984, two men were shot to death inside the Chandelier Club on Reistertown Road in northwest Baltimore, Maryland. Michael Stewart was 47 years old. Joseph Johnson, known as “Proposition Joe”, was 48 years old.
At the time of the shooting, Officer Patrick Conley of the Baltimore Police Department was in his cruiser a block south of the after-hours club. He would later testify that he heard two gunshots and saw a Black man leave the club, running north on Reistertown Road before turning east on Orem Avenue. Conley said he drove after the man and caught up with him on Orem, arresting 22-year-old Marando Warthen and seizing a .357 Magnum revolver that was in the back of Warthen’s pants. Warthen was charged with two counts of murder and related weapons charges.
At the police station, officers swabbed Warthen’s hands for gunshot residue and sent the evidence to the FBI crime laboratory for a neutron activation test, which detects the presence of barium and antimony. The lab reported that the tests were inconclusive and did not indicate that Warthen had recently fired a weapon. Police did not try to lift fingerprints from the revolver.
Separately, Joseph Kopera, a firearms examiner with the Baltimore Police Department, compared two spent cartridge cases and a slug found at the Chandelier Club against test rounds fired from the Magnum and said in a report that they had been fired by the same weapon.
Warthen’s trial began on November 5, 1984, in Baltimore City Circuit Court, with Judge Edward Angeletti presiding.
Conley testified that he heard the shots from the club and then a few seconds later, “the door flew open, and I saw a Black male wearing a brown leather jacket run out of the building up Reistertown Road.” Conley said the man was about 6 feet tall and holding something in his hand.
Conley said he radioed the dispatcher and then drove after the man. He said that when he turned down Orem Avenue, Warthen was the only person he saw on the street. He said Warthen was walking and placing what Conley believed was a gun in the back of his pants.
Conley testified that he got out of his cruiser, drew his service revolver, and told Warthen to put his hands up. He said he then took the gun out of Warthen’s pants, and that Warthen told him, “I think someone’s been shot around the corner.”
Conley said the revolver found on Warthen contained four live rounds and two spent cartridges. Conley said he did not submit the weapon for fingerprint testing because he had touched the weapon and then put the gun in his pocket.
John Kilty, head of the FBI’s Elemental Analysis Unit, testified that Warthen’s hands showed “insignificant amounts of barium or antimony,” but that this wasn’t necessarily exculpatory.
“Some guns do not deposit residue on the hand,” he said. “Some ammunition does not have the chemical elements that we are interested in present in the ammunition.”
He testified that he had performed two test firings of the Magnum. In the first test, Kilty said he fired the weapon twice and was swabbed 30 seconds later. In the second, he fired the Magnum five times rapidly. In each instance, Kilty testified, his hands showed no significant amount of the two elements.
Kopera testified about his toolmark analysis of the bullets and shell casings. Prior to his testimony, Judge Angeletti told the jury: “I know Mr. Kopera quite well. But, Mr. Kopera, will you be kind enough to give the jury a capsule of your training, education, and background?”
Kopera testified that he received a graduate degree from the University of Maryland in mechanical engineering and a science degree from the Rochester Institute of Photo Science.
He explained to the jury about how the rifling of a gun barrel creates small, unique grooves on a bullet when it is fired.
“In the process of manufacturing these rifling marks or land and groove impressions, the manufacturer, because of the types of tools he uses in the process in which he puts his rifling marks within the barrel, is also putting minute marks called stria within the barrel, which enable the ballistic examiner or firearm examiner to identify that barrel to a fired bullet,” Kopera said.
Kopera testified that the test-fired casings and the casings found at the Chandelier Club contained the same rifling, which he said proved the bullets fired at the club were fired from the .357 Magnum recovered by Officer Conley.
Warthen did not testify, but four witnesses testified on his behalf.
James Francis and Charles Coleman, close friends who referred to each other as “cousins,” each testified that they were inside the club at the time of the shooting. They both testified that Warthen was not the gunman, whom they said was about 5’6” tall, about six inches shorter than Warthen. The credibility of Francis and Coleman was called into question during cross-examination after they said they did not know Warthen. Francis was Warthen’s brother, although he sometimes used a different last name.
Zelda Horton testified that she and Milton Lowman were walking west on Orem Avenue at around 3:30 a.m. and having an argument when Warthen, who was wearing light-colored clothing, walked past them in the other direction and said hello. She said another man, who was about 5’5” tall and wearing dark clothing, ran up the street, threw an object toward the gutter, and continued running. She said Warthen picked up the object and was examining it when Conley pulled up. Horton said she did not know Warthen prior to running into him at a local market after he was released on bond following his arrest.
Lowman testified that he had occasionally played basketball with Warthen but considered him an acquaintance, not a friend. His testimony about the events prior to Warthen’s arrest largely tracked Horton’s account, although he also said Horton was wearing a pink dress. He said that the police never interviewed him about what he or Horton saw that night.
The jury convicted Warthen of two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of illegal use of a handgun, and two counts of weapons possession on November 9, 1984. Warthen was not present when the verdict was read. During deliberations, he had fled the courthouse but was captured the next day at a motel in Baltimore. He was later sentenced to 103 years in prison.
At the time of his arrest for the Club Chandelier murders, Warthen was well-known to the Baltimore police. He and two other men had been arrested two years earlier on a murder charge, but the case was dismissed, according to the Baltimore Sun, after prosecutors discovered credibility problems with the state’s key witness.
Judge Angeletti said at Warthen’s sentencing: “As far as this court is concerned, you’re one of the most dangerous young men I’ve had in my limited experience on this earth the opportunity to come into contact with. I wouldn’t trust you as far as I could throw this courthouse building. You’re one of the most untrustworthy persons I’ve seen in my life. In the court’s view, and based on this verdict, you are nothing more than a paid assassin. I’ve no respect for you as a person or human being. Quite frankly, I’m apprehensive about you. I think you’re one of the most dangerous people I’ve ever met, and I intend to do everything I can to keep you off the streets of the city.”
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed Warthen’s conviction in 1985. In 1989, a judge in Baltimore City Circuit Court reduced his sentence by three years, agreeing with Warthen that the weapons charges were duplicative. Warthen moved for post-conviction relief in 2001, but a judge denied his request.
In early 2007, a public defender in Maryland discovered inconsistencies in Kopera’s testimony about his resume. The attorney dug further and found out that Kopera, by then working for the Maryland State Police, had lied about his credentials. He had only attended college for a year and forged a transcript from the University of Maryland. After being confronted with this evidence, Kopera retired and then shot himself to death on March 1, 2007.
Warthen filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence on October 6, 2009. A judge denied the petition on procedural grounds on February 15, 2011, and a series of judges at the trial and appellate level ruled against re-opening his claims.
In 2019, investigators learned that Kopera had done more than just testify falsely about his credentials; he had also forged the initials of the co-worker who was supposed to have reviewed his work.
On September 12, 2022, Warthen filed a new petition for a writ of actual innocence, based on Kopera’s deceptions. But for Kopera’s testimony, the petition said, there was “a substantial likelihood that the jury would have acquitted [Warthen].”
Excising the faulty testimony, the state’s case fails,” the motion said. “Assessing the balance of the evidence when Mr. Kopera’s testimony is removed, the state’s case is reduced to 1) eyewitnesses who did not see the shooter. 2) a police officer observing [Warthen] exiting the club and placing a gun in his waistband, and 3) [Warthen] telling the officer that someone may have been shot in the club.”
After an evidentiary hearing, Judge Charles Peters of Baltimore City Circuit Court granted Warthen’s petition for a writ of actual innocence and ordered a new trial on February 16, 2023. Peters wrote that no witnesses identified Warthen as the gunman, and that “other than Kopera’s ballistics analysis, there was no forensic evidence tying the [defendant] to the crime.” He noted the lack of gunshot residue found on Warthen’s hands.
The Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office did not certify that Warthen was innocent, but it dismissed the charges on April 3, 2023. Warthen, now 61 years old, was released from prison after more than 38 years in custody. Ronnie Hunt Jr. and Douglass Haynie were also exonerated in part based on Kopera’s misconduct.
On April 1, 2024, Warthen filed a claim for state compensation. The state opposed the request. It conceded that Kopera’s trial testimony was unreliable but said that Warthen had not met the burden of proving his innocence. Administrative Law Judge Jennifer Carter Jones held a three-day hearing on October 1-3, 2024.
Warthen testified about his arrest on the morning of April 23, 1984. He said he was walking down Orem Avenue. He said he saw Lowman and Horton on the street, recalling Horton’s Easter dress, and then saw a short, stocky man run toward him. Warthen said the man tossed a bag near some steps. Warthen said he was curious about the bag’s contents and went over to inspect it but never touched anything inside. He said he picked up the bag and found it to be heavy, so he put it back down. About 5-10 seconds later, Warthen said, as he was moving away from the bag, Conley stopped him and told him to put his hands up and said he would “blow his fucking brains off” if he moved.
Warthen said Conley handcuffed him and then noticed the bag and found the weapon. He said Conley told him, “I got your black ass now,” and used the N-word while making the arrest. Warthen said he never told Conley that there had been a shooting at the club. He said he only told Conley, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot” after the officer drew his service weapon.
Separately, Carl Leisinger, a former supervisor of the New Jersey State Police Forensic Laboratory, testified that Kilty had testified inaccurately at Warthen’s trial. He said it was impossible to fire a .357 Magnum without the weapon depositing gunshot residue on the hands of the shooter. Leisinger said the Magnum was a powerful weapon and that the gaps between the cylinder and the barrel allowed gunshot residue to escape in all directions when the weapon was fired, contaminating the shooter’s hands. If Warthen had fired the .357, Leisinger said, his hands would have tested positive for gunshot residue.
On January 2, 2025, Judge Jones ruled that Warthen had proven his innocence in the murders of Stewart and Johnson. She noted that the state had never produced a motive for the crime and that Warthen had consistently maintained his innocence for more than 40 years.
She ordered that the state pay Warthen $2.8 million in state compensation, $99,720 in housing benefits, and $228,190 in attorney fees. Warthen spent more than 14,000 days in prison, but he was only compensated for 10,382 of those days, because he served a concurrent 10-year sentence for a 1992 conviction while in prison.
In her ruling, Judge Jones, wrote, “Ultimately, I found the claimant to be tremendously credible to the extent that I feel comfortable saying that he was one of the most credible witnesses I have observed in the 20 years I’ve been conducting hearings as an administrative law judge.”
She also said that by finding Warthen’s testimony to be credible, “I must conclude Officer Conley fabricated facts regarding his identification of [Warthen] as the man he saw exit the Chandelier Club and his arrest of [Warthen] on Orem.”
Judge Jones said that it made no sense that Conley said he saw Warthen run out of the club, but that Warthen was walking when Conley arrested him only two blocks from the shooting. She also questioned Conley’s account of why he didn’t submit the Magnum for fingerprint testing.
“Regardless of why Officer Conley touched the revolver he reportedly retrieved from the claimant’s waistband and placed in his pocket, it is unclear why he did not submit the gun for fingerprint analysis in the event that it would yield evidence that would strengthen the outcome of the criminal investigation and state’s case against the claimant at trial,” she wrote.
At trial, a detective had testified that it would have been a waste of time and money to test the gun for fingerprints, because the way the weapon had been handled would not provide useful results. But Jones said that was at odds with the state’s insistence to perform gunshot residue testing from a weapon that the FBI’s own expert testified wouldn’t provide useful results. She said Kilty’s testimony was “incorrect and inconsistent with common sense.”
On February 12, 2025, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved the payments to Warthen and his attorney. Governor Wes Moore, who chairs the board, said: “Mr. Warthen, as the governor of this state, but most importantly as a father, as a husband, as a son, and as a fellow Marylander, there are no words that can be said or shared to tell you how sorry I am, but also how sorry this entire state is for the way that our justice system failed you repeatedly. And while no amount can undo the injustice to make up for what was taken from you and your wife and your family, I do hope that today's actions by this board provide a measurable level of closure and relief for the completely unfair treatment that you have gone through.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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